Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
by C.S. Skywalker
Summary: There has been an awakening in the Force. The sinister First Order has arisen,and only the Resistance can stop them. Poe, a brave pilot of the Resistance has been taken prisoner, and only a rebellious Stormtrooper can save him. Rey, a scavenger on the planet Jakku waits patiently for someone to bring her home, but little does she know a man from her past has been watching over her.
1. Prologue: Ambush on Jakku

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

 **STAR WARS**

 **Episode VII**

 **Luke Skywalker has vanished.**

 **In his absence, the sinister FIRST ORDER has risen from the ashes of the Empire and will not rest until Skywalker, the last Jedi, has been destroyed.**

 **With the support of the REPUBLIC, General Leia Organa leads a brave RESISTANCE. She is desperate to find her brother Luke and gain his help in restoring peace and justice to the galaxy.**

 **Leia has sent her most daring pilot on a secret mission to Jakku, where an old ally has discovered a clue to Luke's whereabouts . . . .**

 _ **Prologue**_

 _ **Ambush on Jakku**_

It was a small, peaceful village. The distant sound of native animals bleated, as a single wind chime finished the serenity of it all.

Suddenly a droid burst into view as he rolled on the sand: round and skittery, orange and white; the droid's name was BB-8. He focused on something past the village, his small, black lenses eye searching intently. The droid beeped as he watched, -fast, morse code-like sounds-, and moved even closer, clearly worried. He then turned, and rolled off towards a primitive hut, night close at hand.

An old man with sparse white hair handed a small, leather sack to the man opposite towards him. The man, who had a mane of unruly black hair and wore a brown pilot's jacket, held onto the small object, feeling the weight of its importance in his hands. Lor San Tekka placed his hand on top of Poe's. The elderly man watched Poe carefully. The pilot had intense dark eyes, and an air of charisma about him.

"This will begin to make things right," the older man spoke. "I've traveled too far, and seen too much, to ignore the despair in the galaxy. Without the Jedi, there can be no balance in the Force."

"Well, because of you now we have a chance," Poe held up the small sack. "The General's been after this for a long time."

The old man smiled. " _The General._ To me, she's royalty."

"Well, she certainly is that." Poe smiled.

He looked as if he was about to say more, but before he could, the droid BB-8 burst through the entrance, bleating madly. Poe turned to the droid, listening intently, and then back, to Lor San Tekka, concerned.

"We've got company," he said intently, and exited the hut fast.

Poe raised a pair of quadnoculats to his eyes, zooming in as he saw bright white searchlights on the horizon, and then the steadily approaching enemy ships which loomed dark and great. The pilot lowered the quadnocs, watching with unnerved eyes as the village began rush with a flurry of activity. A frightening thunder grew as Poe turned to San Tekka.

"You have to hide," Poe said.

"You have to leave," the older man replied. Poe looked conflicted. "Go!"

He finally nodded and hurried off, BB-8 hot on his tail. They sprinted through the village, various armed villagers taking position, preparing to defend.

It was already too late.

There was a roar of wind and dust as the transports landed. Stormtroopers ran out, firing blasters, as the villagers fought back. It was already obvious that they were outmatched ten to one. When one villager got a shot off, ten more frightening, white troopers appeared behind him.

Adjacent to the village, Poe ran to an X-Wing fighter, parked at a distance, hidden behind an outcropping of rocks. The small orange and white droid hurried behind him as fast as he could roll, his antenna flying in the wind.

"Come on, BeeBee-Ate , hurry!" Poe called back.

He climbed onto his X-Wing as BB-8 rolled under the droid socket and was grabbed by a metal magnet. Moving into the cockpit, the canopy closed shut above him and the controls came to life. Poe shot a quick look towards the back as Stormtroopers began coming over the ridge.

BB-8 bleated with panic as Poe urgently worked the controls. The landing lights flashed on, and the engine whirred to life. As Poe began initiating the flight sequence, the cockpit suddenly shook with blaster fire. Two Stormtroopers had caught sight of the rogue X-Wing and had begun to attack. BB-8 screeched in alarm and Poe grabbed the controls.

"I see 'em! I see 'em!" he called.

The X-Wing dropped down an antipersonnel blaster and began shooting down the two troopers in automatic mode. Getting that off his plate, Poe tried to start the ship again, but the engines sputtered, refusing to start. Concerned, he opened his canopy and jumped down, moving towards the back to assess the damage.

One of the troopers had gotten off a good hit. The rear engine was badly damaged. Poe touched the blackened panel slightly trying to see if he could do anything and retracted his hand quickly, feeling the metal still hot and melted. He grimaced. There was nothing he could do, it had to be replaced completely.

They were in real trouble now.

BB-8 was lowered out of the X-Wing, confused, as Poe knelt beneath his ship, pulling from the leather sack a small, old artifact, that looked like a microchip.

"You take this," he said, raising the chip and prompting BB-8 to open up his multi-reader. "It's safer with you than it is with me." Poe placed it inside the compartment and it snapped shut as BB-8 accepted it. "You get as far away from here as you can. Do you hear me?"

" _Wooo_ ," BB-8 beeped, hesitant.

"I'll come back for you! It will be alright," Poe gave him a reassuring look as he stood up.

In his heart, the pilot knew there was a slim chance of his return. He would just have to hope and pray that General Organa would hear of his capture and locate the droid on Jakku. Droid and human shared one last look, and then Poe ran, drawing the troopers away.

BB-8 watched Poe run off. Whining nervously, he turned and headed off into the opposite direction. He paused, and then turned around once more to look at Poe's retreating figure, torn. It was protocol for BB-8 to follow what the pilot told him to do, yet as his integral system had already calculated, there was a one-thousand to one chance that his master would keep his word. Knowing he was leaving the pilot to die, he zoomed off as fast as he could, hoping to keep his friend's last wish.

Poe ran back towards the village and swung his blaster up on an outcropping of rock. Catching sight of two Stormtroopers about to attack, he trained his blaster on them and shot, scoring one in the head.

The trooper that was hit fell down, injured and dying. Another knelt to help. The hit trooper raised a torn, bloody glove, his human hand visible, and reached out to touch the helping Stormtrooper. It was too late. He died before reaching the trooper, fingertips barely brushing the other's helmet, marking the Stormtrooper's mask with blood. The bloodied trooper stood, watching the events unfold around him, overwhelmed by the battle. He whipped around as a dark imposing shuttle craft, boasting a vertical wingspan of ninety feet, landed near the much smaller transport vehicles. The shuttle craft door opened. Through the wind and smoke, a tall, dark figure exited the ship. He strode toward the chaos towards San Tekka and the captured villagers.

A senior trooper moved to the blood-marked trooper, corralling him into the circle with the other Stormtroopers, all of whom had their blasters trained on the defenseless villagers . "Stay here."

The cloaked man stopped before the outraged Lor San Tekka, dwarfing him. Only now did it become apparent that the man wore a dark mask, marked by battle. Inset metal lines reflected the fire and destruction from the village.

The dark man spoke after contemplating the elder, a deep mechanical voice coming out from under the mask. "Look how old you've become."

"Something far worse has happened to you," San Tekka replied woefully.

The masked man paused, keeping his composure. "You know what I've come for."

"I know where you come from. Before you called yourself Kylo Ren."

Kylo Ren ignored this statement. "The map to Skywalker. We know you've found it, and now you're going to give it to the First Order."

"The First Order rose from the Dark Side. You did not," San Tekka said.

"I'll show you the Dark Side," Ren retorted with a hint of a whine in his voice.

"You may try, but you cannot deny the truth that is your family."

"You're so right," Kylo Ren replied simply.

Suddenly, he raised his lightsaber and ignited it. Perpendicular smaller blades shot out at the hilt. It had a unique buzz, unsteady, unstable with a yellow red energy, spitting sparks and smoke. Ren ripped it across San Tekka in a flash of fury.

Poe ran out as he saw this, yelling, and fired his blaster at Kylo Ren. Instantly, Ren turned and raised his hand. Poe's blue blast froze, the bolt of energy straining and vibrating in mid-air. Poe suddenly found himself unable to move, straining against an invisible force. Sweat beaded his upper lip -he was in for it now.

He was grabbed by two Stormtroopers who dragged him past the frozen blast to Kylo Ren. One of his captors kicked out Poe's legs and he landed hard on his knees. Kylo Ren knelt to look at Poe. The pilot only gave him a blank stare back.

There was a moment of silence and then Poe spoke. "So who talks first? You talk first?"

"The old man gave it to you," Ren stated, contemplating the pilot's face.

Poe indicated Kylo's mask. "It's just very hard to understand you with all the-"

He was cut off as Kylo Ren interrupted. "Search him."

"Apparatus," Poe finished as a Stormtrooper began a brutal pat down. Kylo Ren watched closely to see if they had found anything.

Poe only glared as the pat down ended.

"Nothing, sir," the trooper reported.

Kylo Ren silently seethed. "Put him onboard."

He regarded the Stormtroopers with the rounded-up villagers, then turned to a chrome-skinned, black caped Stormtrooper captain named Phasma.

"Sir, the villagers," a metallic female voice came from her helmet.

"Kill them all," Ren ordered without hesitation.

Captain Phasma nodded, and then stepped forward. "On my command!"

The troopers, including the blood marked one, aimed at the villagers. They began to panic, holding each other.

"Fire!"

Poe was roughly pulled into a transport ship as he struggled, looking behind him at the carnage as the ramp lifted.

All around the blood marked Trooper, blasterfire erupted. He raised his own hesitantly, and then dropped it, unable to kill innocent people. Once the shooting was over, all the Stormtroopers began to spread out to search, except him, still shaken by the scene that had unfolded before him.

Kylo Ren headed back toward his ship, but then he paused, feeling something. He turned and watched the blood marked Stormtrooper for a long moment. The trooper could barely meet his gaze. He knew he was doomed.

Casting away his thoughts, Kylo Ren strode off, passing the frozen blast, which, after a beat, went free and slammed into a nearby structure, scaring the trooper as he stumbled in surprise.

Some ways away from the village, a Stormtrooper climbed down from the cockpit of Poe's X-Wing after a search and backed away.

"Nothing here. Go ahead!" he called.

Three other Stormtroopers fired laser cannons at the X-Wing, destroying the ship in a large explosion.

In the outskirts of the Jakku village, the small, circular droid was rolling as fast as he could, away from the attack. The sudden explosion made him turn, flames of the X-Wing fireball reflecting in his black lenses. The fleet of ships that had arrived to capture him, and his friend flew away into the darkness. He gave a small, sad whir, wondering if he would ever see the cheerful pilot again. Afraid, he continued on his own in the mysterious, dark desert, beeping to himself, lonely and frightened.

 **XXX**

With the sandy planet of Jakku as a backdrop, troop transports and Kylo Ren's shuttle approached massive Star Destroyer. As they landed, a shackled Poe was ushered roughly from the transport through the hangar. The pilot was disgruntled by this and yanked his arms free from the trooper's graps. He knew he was a prisoner of war, but the man could walk on his own.

"All right. All right!" Poe snarled, annoyed. He looked as if he was about to say more, but stopped, awed by the imposing space of the Star Destroyer. He had only ever really seen Resistance hangers, old, broken and beat up, some not even really designed for the rows of X-Wings that they had parked. The First Order hangar was sleek and smooth, almost ten times bigger than the Resistance's base. It was filled to the brim with TIE fighters and tens of thousands of troops filled the ship. The pilot blinked. What they were facing was even bigger than what he had imagined.

The blood marked Stormtrooper passed by Poe, moving fast. He entered a dark transport, removing his helmet. A man resurfaced, gasping, sweat beaded on his dark skin. He was likable, and faithful, but in this moment, terrified, and desperate. He didn't know what he had just witnessed. It was entirely different than what he had been taught to believe his entire life -the First Order was to bring peace and order to the galaxy. Not the bloodbath that had just occured. After a brief moment, he heard the sharp clattering of boots in the transport, and knew he was in trouble.

"FN-2187," Captain Phasma's said. "Submit your blaster for inspection."

"Yes, Captain," FN-2187 responded quickly.

She turned to leave, but then noticed a small detail and hesitated, giving him a steady look through her black lensed helmet. "And who gave you permission to remove that helmet?"

"I'm sorry, Captain," he replied.

"Report to my division at once," was all the Captain had to say as she marched off, blaster in hand.

Shattered, FN-2187 replaced his helmet.

 **XXX**

 _"No! Don't leave me! Please! No!"_

A young man with a strong jaw and dark blue eyes gasped, and bolted upright out of his cot, breathing hard and sweating. The scenery he was met with were hills and hills of desert sand, covered by what almost seemed like a thin blanket of dark blue, giving everything a blue tint. The effect made it as though he was sitting in an endless dark blue ocean.

It was still in the young hours of the morning, but the man got up, brushing a layer of sand off his face and chest that had stuck there from his sweat, and put on a thin tan colored robe over his bare shoulders. His R9-M5 unit beeped, concerned. His friend had been having more nightmare visions lately, and it wasn't good for him. The droid nudged the man's legs, trying to get him to go back to sleep.

"Arnine, I'll be fine," the man laughed the droid off.

The red and silver droid made a small noise that almost sounded like a snort and rolled back into the cave. The man watched from his hilltop home as the fallen AT-AT Walker beneath flickered with light. She too was awake. He knew she had been awake long before he had been. He knew she lay awake at night wondering if they were ever going to come back for her. He knew she would tally the days on her walls and she would recount how many days had passed. But most of all, he knew that she remembered nothing about him. "Rey," he whispered.


	2. The Scavenger and the Droid

_**1**_

 _ **The Scavenger and the Droid**_

 _'Just a little bit more...Reach, c'mon...there!'_

A young woman ripped out the part of the Star Destroyer that Unkar Platt, the junk boss of Jakku, had given double for the week before. It was worth plenty, more than the amount she actually needed. It was good that she was stocking up on supplies -Unkar had been stingier as of late and refused to give her more than one, or even a quarter portion. She was beginning to run out of food, and it was good that no one had found her hidden Star Destroyer plot yet. She needed it.

The woman placed the part inside her pouch, checked to make sure she had footing and jumped, grabbed a hanging rope, and slid down. It still struck her how large the ship was. If this kind of large ship was used by the Empire and they had been defeated, then the horrors of the First Order weapons were unimaginable to her. She walked in the darkness of the Star Destroyer, the light clipped to her makeshift goggles, equipped with Stormtrooper lenses, lighting her way. The girl made her way to the opening, kicking stray pieces of metal with her staff on her way out, scavenging for more spare parts that she could find.

The scorching sun and heat was foreign to the young woman as she made her way outside from the cool darkness. She reached up, flicking the light switch off and lifted up her goggles, revealing startlingly beautiful dark chocolate irises that were edged with a deep forest green. The two colors seemed to swirl together like moss creeping over rich soil. And when she squinted in the bright Jakku sun, both colors ignited with a dazzling glow, highlighting the hidden gold in her irises, like a glittering kaleidoscope. Oblivious to her natural beauty, she yanked down the cloth connected to her headdress that covered her nose and reached into her pack for a canteen. It was fairly light as she lifted it and it testified true to her guess as when she lifted it to her lips, only a small flow of water came out.

She slammed the side of the canteen a couple of times to try and get the last drops of water out, and shoved it back in her pack. She knelt down and sat into the sled she made for herself and slid down the huge hill that the Star Destroyer sat upon, down towards her junk speeder. Throwing the parts and her sled into a net hanging from the side, the girl jumped on, lowered her goggles and kicked the ignition, starting the speeder, and zoomed off into the sunset. Jakku was barren, no doubt about that. There was junk all over the place, from fallen X-Wings to TIE fighters, the remnants of the battle between the Galactic Empire and the Rebellion were still visible. She snorted. It hadn't changed a bit since the Rebellion and the New Republic had won. A new oppression that called themselves the First Order had arisen, and they followed the same principles as the Empire. There would always be evil, just in different forms.

Arriving at town, the woman yanked her headdress off, slid down from her speeder and unhitched her parts, dragging them to a nearby washing station in order to sell them to Unkar. As she scrubbed her things, an old woman in front of her caught her eye. She was slowly scrubbing her parts with leathery hands and had weather beaten skin. The girl blinked. Was that how she was going to become?

" _Gran shado, schutta!_ " A grunt came from behind her and she shook herself out of her daze, scrubbing faster.

Throwing her clean parts in a bag, she tossed the brush into the murky water and got in line to sell to Unkar Platt. Looking around at the pitiful sight around her, she sighed. Many of the scavengers who lived on Jakku walked with their heads down and shoulders slumped. Most had given up hope to live, only scavenging because of starvation and the fear of death. Although there were people like Unkar Platt who gave out portions in exchange for spare parts, those people were quite honestly unfair, and it was obvious that they chose favorites. Jastor Namore for one. The woman's lip curled in disgust as she saw the man coming closer, and hoped that someone would get in line before him.

No such luck as he managed to slip past a much smaller Jawa and got his place in line after her. The Jawa expressed his distaste of the man cutting him off by calling him a quite vulgar phrase in Huttese, making the woman cringe. Trying to forget and not picture what the Jawa was now currently threatening to do to Jastor Namore, she instead studied quietly the man who stood behind her. She could never quite figure out what he exactly looked like. The man always wore a dark tan robe, almost brown, equipped with hood on his broad shoulders and covered his face at all times. It was practical for a sandy planet like this, but the woman liked to see who or what she was looking at. It was plain to see from the cut off sleeves of the robe that his arms were taut and muscular from his heavy load, and his skin had adapted to the heat, coloring it a dark tan -all from the cost of living in an environment like Jakku. In his net of things were the shiniest parts she had ever seen. They were so well polished that she had to squint from the glare that reflected off of them. She had no idea where he got those parts or how they became that well-polished. By his side sat his ever faithful red and silver R9-M5 unit. She would never know how did he get that old droid. They were only dirt-poor scavengers. He must've stolen it from some old ship and pieced it back together. Either that or some wealthy smugglers who dropped by Jakku sometime. That was more probable where he got the droid-

"Can I help you?" a muffled voice came from under the hood.

The woman started in surprise. She had never heard him talk, as he'd never talked to her before, and she had been so preoccupied with the rarity of the parts that she hadn't noticed herself blatantly staring at him.

"I-I, no, I'm- I apologize for staring," she quickly turned around, face burning for acting so foolish in front of him.

She heard a chuckle come from behind and turned back sharply. Jastor Namore's shoulders were shaking softly as another round of chuckles came from under the hood. His droid caught on as well and gave a few bleeps that imitated laughter. This irritated the young woman.

"I don't know what you find so amusing," she started angrily. "But I'd appreciate it if you'd stop laughing at me and treating me as if I was a child."

"Of course," the man shifted slightly. His hood slipped from its previous position and no longer covered his face as much as it had. The woman was surprised to see that looking out from under the hood and the cloth that covered his nose, striking dark azure eyes that seemed to pierce her soul.

She was tired of him mocking her and wouldn't put up with it anymore. It was scum like him that made her hate this place even more. Scavengers were never treated fairly in the first place, and women even less. She was never taken seriously by Unkar and it was quite obvious that Jastor Namore didn't either. Giving him a scathing look, she turned back towards the front of the line and stepped forward as it became her turn, slamming her parts in anger onto the table above her. The junkyard dealer, Unkar Platt regarded her with a look as he recognized her irritable behavior, and began sifting through her parts.

"This is worth...one half portion," he grunted, as he picked up the piece from the Star Destroyer that she had gone through so much trouble getting.

She blinked and her mouth pursed into a thin line. He was double-crossing her. Last week he gave her one full portion for the exact same parts. She glanced at him and roughly took her portion, stalking off, unsatisfied with what she had received.

As she reached for her speeder, curiosity got the best of her and she glanced back at the trading station to see what Namore had received for his parts. She watched as Unkar got his greedy hands over the glittering parts and eyed then with glee. He took the parts into the station and brought out six, seven, eight, nine, ten portions worth. The buzz of the crowd reached her ears -Unkar almost never brought out a good payload- and the woman shook her head. Jastor Namore was one of Unkar's favorites, as he always delivered -and he delivered well.

She shot another disgusted look towards the man and aggressively went back through her routine of re-clipping her net back to her speeder and shoving her staff back in the side, only stopping when she heard shouts and yells in guttural Huttese. Turning back to the trading station, she saw Jastor Namore reach under the grating separating the junk bosses from the scavengers and grab Unkar Platt's neck. He leaned forward, speaking through the grating threateningly, and the junk boss fearfully gave him four more portions. The woman snorted softly. As if ten portions weren't enough.

She turned back to checking her speeder and making sure everything was clipped on safely when a hard shove made her fall against the speeder.

"Ow!" she exclaimed after seeing that Namore was the one who had bumped into her. He didn't turn back to apologize to her, instead, stalked off and ignored her, the R9 unit rolling in his wake. She frowned and rubbed her sore shoulder, irritated at his rudeness.

The woman turned back towards her speeder and made to get onto it when a crunch from under her boot made her pause. She lifted her foot to inspect what she'd stepped on, and saw four portions worth on the ground, the exact four portions that Jastor Namore had bullied Unkar into giving him. The girl knelt down in the warm sand and lifted the portions up excitedly. This could keep her going for days. She could finally have a full meal tonight, she could-

The woman paused in her racing thoughts. These weren't hers. They were rightfully Jastor's.

With a heavy heart but a clear conscience, she stood up, sighting the hooded figure and yelled, "Hey! He-ey! Jastor! Jastor Namore!"

The man kept going, his cloak billowing out from under him. His droid however, turned and looked back at her as he waited for Namore to place him in the speeder.

"Jastor!" Rey screamed, feeling her dry throat burn as she did so. "I have your four portions worth, you dropped them when you-"

The girl's voice trailed off. Jastor had kick started his engine and he sped off into the sunset as his droid staring after her, the sunset reflecting on his silver dome. It was too late to give them to him now, she didn't even know where he lived.

She turned and placed the four portions into her pack and paused, replaying the scene in her mind. It was strange that there was exactly four portions worth on the ground, the amount that Unkar had given Jastor. Disregarding the perfection of the outcome, the woman shook it off and jumped on her speeder to go home. It must be just coincidence.

Yet deep down in her heart, a small voice whispered that there were no such things as coincidences.

 **XXX**

Jastor Namore slumped tiredly down into his cave home above the girl's fallen Walker home, his astromech unit screeching at him.

"Yes, know Arnine!" Jastor waved his hand in annoyance. "I know that was close okay, I just couldn't stand by and watch her get cheated by Unkar!"

R9-M5 gave an indignant beep and sat at the mouth of the cave, on the watch for when the girl arrived home.

Jastor sighed and ripped off his hood and scarf. He hated having to hide his identity in front of the woman, but he knew it was for the greater good. If she saw him, she might recognize him, and memories from her past could come flooding back. He picked himself up from his cot and proceeded to pour buckets of sand out of his shoes. The man hated the sand. He hated everything about the dry, acrid planet. Glancing at his pile of junk in the corner, he assessed how much he had left before he had to contact the smugglers he knew from his past days, who occasionally came to Jakku to see how he was doing He fingered the intercom that he kept in his cloak that lead him directly to an old smuggler friend he knew. They once had called him up and offered to give him a lift out of Jakku for a job with them -and he had almost taken it. If it weren't for the girl. It was his mission to stay and watch over her. He would not go back on his word to protect her, just to become a dirty smuggler.

R9-M5 suddenly burst into his musings with a series of blips and bleeps and screeches.

"Arnine, calm down! What's wrong?" Jastor quickly slipped his boots back on. "Calm down buddy, talk to me."

One frantic screech and Jastor knew.

"Arnine, run over that cord there!" The droid spun over to a rope holding up a thin cloth and ran over it, releasing the strap and snapping a hidden cloth that rested about the cave's mouth out. Jastor dived for the other side of the rope, yanking it down just in time to hear the sound of a speeder arriving at the AT-AT Walker.

"Good work, Arnine," Jastor said breathlessly.

The cloth that human and droid had been so frantic to lower covered the mouth of the cave and was colored the same as the sands of Jakku. It was made out of a light, shifty material to mimic the movements of the sand, so as not to be obvious that there was something hidden there. Jastor and R9 had checked every day to make sure that their camouflage covering was believable. If the droid was convinced, so was Jastor.

The man peered through the curtain to see if he could get a glimpse of the girl. It was thin enough on the inside that he could see out of it, but made thick on the outside so no one could tell that there was a cave underneath. The woman jumped off her speeder and took her staff out, throwing her other provisions over her shoulder. Jastor grinned. She was never seen without that staff. The girl threw the staff into the sand on the side of the Walker and ducked into the junk machine. Jastor crawled back into the depths of the cave and leaned against the cool wall, taking refuge from the heat, and opened a canteen of water, feeling the water slide down his dry throat.

"Now she's going to mark another tack on her wall, and come outside to eat her dinner," Jastor said. "Just watch"

True to what he'd guessed, the slim body of the woman shimmied back out of the Walker with a metal plate and an old Rebel pilot helmet. Jastor smiled. She really liked that junk helmet.

"I bet it makes you feel like you're somewhere else. That you're flying an X-Wing away from this place," he whispered as he licked his dry, cracked lips and took another sip

R9 turned to him, and beeped.

"No, sorry Arnine, just talking to myself."

The droid gave a cheeky bleep and rolled closer to his friend. He knew the man wanted desperately to talk to the woman. He knew his friend missed her, and knew that it hurt him to see her despise him -even though the act of arrogance on his part was indeed to get her to hate him for his cover. R9 opened a shaft in his body and began playing a hologram of an old recorded pod race. The two would always watch this during dinnertime; that was when R9 knew Jastor became lonely while watching the woman.

Jastor turned to his droid and smiled. People said that droids didn't have souls. The man would beg to differ.

There was a clatter of plates outside, and a yell of Huttese. It was her. R9 immediately shut down the hologram as Jastor scrambled towards the mouth of the cave and fell onto his stomach, lifting the tail-end of the curtain.

"Arnine, hand me those binoculars," the man held out his hand. There was a whoosh, and Jastor felt the leathery feel of the worn-down binoculars in his hands. "Alright Arnine, let's see what we've got here," he said as he lifted the binoculars to his eyes. "Hopefully nothing big."

Twisting the lenses, Jastor zoomed in to what looked like a scavenger riding some kind of junk animal and to the girl, cutting lose an orange and white-

"It's an orange and white BB unit," Jastor muttered. "Arnine, it's them."

He zoomed in closer. "I can't tell what they're saying. Buddy, can you maybe-"

R9 opened up his metal appendage and opened up a listening device. Jastor grinned. Leave it to his droid to read his mind.

"No!" the girl exclaimed with a slightly disgusted tone. Jastor blinked. What was going on?

The BB unit gave a sad moan, and he heard her hesitate as the sand crunched.

"Alright come on," she said almost begrudgingly as the droid gave a joyful yip. The man zoomed out to see both of them make their way up the hill back towards home.

"But you only stay for tonight," she said.

After a small pause, the BB unit looked up at her and bleeped.

"You're welcome," the woman replied grudgingly.

"Alright, Arnine, I think that's enough," the man said quietly as the droid put away his listening device.

" _Wee ooo_?" R9 hummed.

"I don't know Arnine. That BB unit," Jastor looked back out at the Walker as the girl followed the droid into her home. "It's not a threat, but it's Resistance stuff. There has to be a reason why it's here."

The man looked down, remembering last night's events of the First Order ships that R9 had spotted on their nightly patrol. Those two events, -this BB unit and the First Order slaughter from the night before-, had to be connected.

He stood up quickly, sand flying out from under him. "Gather your parts buddy, we're leaving tomorrow."

 ***The Huttese spoken to Rey while she scrubbed her spare parts roughly translates to: "Faster, bitch!"**


End file.
